Kill Stealing
Kill stealing, particularly in the game system Everquest, applies to the practice of stealing the spoils resulting from an enemy vanquished by other players. In these games, the defeat of a foe results in rewards such as gold (or equivalent in-game currency) and experience points, which are normally partitioned among all characters nominally participating in the combat.Especially when eBay allowed the auction of Everquest characters (which could sell for as much as $5000) it was common practice for players to start new characters, then travel with characters of much higher level while they vanquished powerful monsters. The result was that the beginning character would accumulate experience points very fast and thereby quite quickly gain in level. Once the character was sufficiently powerful, it would be sold over the Internet. Estimates of possible annual income one could generate as a full-time EverQuest player range from $6000 to $30000 depending upon particular practices of the player. Of course, techniques of kill stealing and "power-gaming" would make this pursuit considerably more lucrative.
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